


The End of All Things

by BDBriggs



Series: Briggs the Seeker [4]
Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Angst, F/M, Past Character Death, rated for language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 17:32:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,124
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18627967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BDBriggs/pseuds/BDBriggs
Summary: Matthias Shaw was compromised.The icing on the cake was that Anduin had actually listened to Shaw, and he’d agreed to put out wanted posters and send the guards after her. She’d known Anduin for over a decade and yet he’d turned on her the moment someone spoke ill of her. The thought made her stomach turn.





	The End of All Things

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the "The Imposter" quest for the Alliance where you have to sneak through Stormwind and all the guards are hostile. I quit playing WoW after Legion, so I used this as the reason why Briggs stopped adventuring.

Briggs was _livid_. She’d been angry before in her life, sure, but nothing quite compared to this. Here she was, stealthing through Stormwind, dodging guards and glaring daggers at wanted posters with _her_ face on them. She’d had to dive into dark alleyways, behind lampposts, and into hay bales to avoid detection from guards and patrols who were trying to keep her out.

Matthias Shaw was compromised.

And look, Briggs had seen some shit in her life. She survived the fall of Lordaeron, fought the Lich King and Deathwing personally, and survived more than her fair share of battles gone wrong. For all she’d done for this city and the people in it, she was a wanted woman, and the sick feeling of betrayal cut deeper than anything she’d experienced before.

She was going to make the demon that possessed Shaw _pay_.

The icing on the cake was that Anduin had actually listened to Shaw, and he’d agreed to put out wanted posters and send the guards after her. Briggs had known the boy since he was ten, and she’d always done everything in her power to protect him. In the beginning she’d simply kept an eye on him and kept him entertained, mindful of Lady Prestor’s tight leash on the boy. After Briggs met Varian, her relationship with Anduin had shifted from protector-ward to mother-son. On top of that, he’d trusted her to escort him most of the times he left Stormwind Keep without his father’s knowledge. She’d been the one to chase after him all the way through Pandaria, horrified by the thought that she might lose him. She’d known Anduin for over a decade and yet he’d turned on her the moment someone spoke ill of her. The thought made her stomach turn.

Briggs cast her sister’s inn a bitter glance, but headed past it. It would do no good to get her sister into trouble for harboring her. She wondered, idly, what Steph and Caspian thought of the news that their mother was a wanted criminal, or if they even knew. They had to know; Steph, at least, spent a great deal of time in the city, training with the paladins in the Cathedral. Caspian might be off on an adventure, but he kept in close contact with Steph. If the general populace of Stormwind knew, then Steph knew. If Steph knew, Caspian knew.

It left a sour taste in Briggs’ mouth. Caspian was smart; he’d know something was horribly wrong. He knew better than anyone that she’d never forsake her city. Steph, on the other hand, might be swayed against her, might be horrified that her mother had turned on the city. Briggs made sure to avoid the Cathedral District, just in case. Not that Steph would be able to see her, but—still, just in case.

She narrowly avoided running into Officer Pomeroy, a man who she’d shared drinks with many a time. He had a lantern out, no doubt to catch any rogues sneaking through the city. Most of the guards were in well-lit areas, meaning Briggs could slip around them and stay undetected, but Pomeroy was patrolling the narrower corridors of the Trade District. She crammed herself into a corner and waited for him to move past her before continuing.

The journey to the SI:7 headquarters in Old Town was slow and laborious, but without incident. It left Briggs with entirely too much time to stew in her misery over the situation, but she got there alive. And of course, because nothing was ever easy, some of her old friends were there, in the headquarters. Taoshi had generously paved the way for her; multiple SI:7 rogues were incapacitated, and Lord Tony Romano was nicely distracted by Taoshi’s blades. It hurt, though, to see so many of her old friends here, injured and confused in the chaos. Briggs grit her teeth and engaged Shaw.

It made things a little easier, thankfully, that Shaw himself hadn’t turned on them. Briggs gave the demon possessing him no mercy, and spit on its corpse after she slew it. After Shaw was reinstated, and Briggs was made the leader of the Uncrowned, she returned to Stormwind with her head held high. The guards wouldn’t meet her eyes, she noticed with a sick sort of satisfaction. Officer Pomeroy turned and walked the other way when he neared her. Briggs wrote two quick letters to her children to explain the situation and let them know of her innocence. She ducked into her sister’s inn to say hello and was met with tearful hugs by her sister and the cooks in the back. It was good, she thought, to know that at least some people had believed her innocent.

When the sun set, Briggs squared her shoulders and rode to the Keep. Her timing allowed her to make her way up into the royal wing as all official business was concluded for the day. One of the royal guards motioned her towards Anduin’s rooms, thankfully understanding who she was there to see. Briggs smiled bitterly. She supposed, with Varian dead, there was really only one person in the Keep she visited anymore.

Briggs let herself in without knocking. She was here for a confrontation and would make no pretense of being polite. Inside, Greymane and Anduin sat across from each other by the fire, deep in conversation. Both whipped their heads around to see who had entered without warning, and both had the grace to look ashamed. Briggs came to a stop at the edge of the carpet in the center of the room, a few feet away from the both of them, and waited.

Silence stretched uncomfortably between the three. No one seemed willing to begin the argument that was obvious to follow. Briggs stood there, arms crossed, eyes narrowed, and watched both men carefully. Genn looked distinctly uncomfortable. She and Genn had never been close, and had rarely seen eye to eye, but she’d always followed his orders. She’d been there to pave the way for him in his quest for revenge against Sylvanas in Stormheim, and she’d extended a hand of kindness towards his people time and time again. He _should_ look uncomfortable, she thought with grim satisfaction. At long last, Genn excused himself with a bow, leaving only Briggs and Anduin.

Briggs had always been good at reading Anduin. The poor kid wore his heart on his sleeve, showed his emotions too clearly. He looked uncomfortable and guilty and anxious, and obviously didn’t want to argue with her.

Too bad.

“You turned on me,” Briggs said bluntly. Anduin flinched. “After everything I’ve done for you, for your father, and for your people, _you turned on me_.” Briggs was unable to keep the hard edge out of her voice. She was _angry_ , damn it, and she would not try to hide it.

“I’m sorry,” Anduin said softly.

Briggs shook her head. “I had to hide from my own people, my own friends, for fear that they’d kill me or turn me in,” she told him. “Do you have any idea what that’s like?” Anduin shook his head meekly. “I have given everything to keep you and _our_ people safe, and all of you turned on me the first chance you had.” Briggs uncrossed her arms and clenched her fists, her leather gloves creaking in protest. “It really makes a woman bitter.”

“Briggs, I’m sorry,” Anduin repeated. He looked honest, which was good, Briggs supposed. “It—I didn’t want to believe what Shaw told me, but I couldn’t ignore him. He’d never failed me or my father before.” And ouch, that stung, but Briggs didn’t let her hurt show.

She snorted outright. “Have _I_ ever failed you or your father before?” She asked, only for Anduin to look away. “When have I failed you?” She demanded, “When?!”

Anduin shifted ever so slightly, his eyes trained on the mantelpiece—no, she realized, not the mantelpiece. His eyes were trained on the ornate compass on the mantlepiece. Varian’s compass. Briggs reeled backwards, the unsaid accusation like a slap to the face. She knew this confrontation would hurt, yes, but this—

“You blame me for Varian’s death,” she said. She’d meant for it to come out as a question, but it settled like a statement with the defeated tone of her voice. “I—you said—you told me that it wasn’t my fault!” Briggs hadn’t meant for her voice to sound so hurt, so desperate, but she was shaken. She and Anduin had barely spoken after Varian’s death, both fighting their grief separately. She hadn’t wanted Anduin to see how broken apart she was from the ordeal. But—when they had spoken, he’d assured her that it wasn’t her fault, that he never blamed her.

“You weren’t there when I needed you,” Anduin said, still not meeting her eyes. “I’ve barely seen you at all in the last year, since—since—” Anduin broke off, paused, and started again. “How was I supposed to know that you were still on my side?”

Briggs seethed silently in an attempt to bring her ragged breathing under control. “Trust,” she suggested at last. She paused again, choosing her words carefully. “Everyone handles grief differently,” she said. “I fight things. When Varian died, I charged into the fight against the Legion headfirst and ripped apart the demons responsible for his death.” Anduin looked at her, then, probably startled by the steel in her voice. Whatever he saw in her face upset him; his eyes widened and his skin paled. Briggs continued, “I went out and _did_ something, rather than wallow in grief at home. And when I came back, you _turned_ on me.”

Silence stretched between them again. Anduin stared up at her with that horrified expression on his face, and Briggs couldn’t help her face tightening in—rage? Grief? She was so, so hurt, and all attempts to control her expression were for naught.

Briggs turned away. “I’m leaving,” she said. She heard a flurry of movement behind her and suddenly Anduin was there, holding onto her wrist tightly. She looked at him over her shoulder, her gaze cold and unforgiving. She mulled over her words. How to explain it to him? When she first started her adventure, thirteen years ago, she’d only cared about the money. Traveling the world and getting rich was a win-win for a single mother who wanted to do something other than work in a tavern for the rest of her life. She came home every weekend to her children with enough money to pay for their food and a minder for the week, and that was all there was to it. She never got attached to anyone along the way, because she’d only ever tasted the heartbreak that relationships and friendships could bring. She only wanted the freedom that came with traveling the world and the money to raise her children. Somewhere along the way, though, she’d started to care about people. People like Jaina, Anduin, and Varian. She joined a guild and made friends may as well have been family. Life was _good._

But in the end, it all meant nothing. Sure, she helped save the world, but she couldn’t save the people that were closest to her. The guild broke apart, her dearest friends left with barely a goodbye. Varian, Krasus, and so many others _died_ and she couldn’t do anything to save them. Briggs didn’t try to explain it to Anduin—she couldn’t find the words to make him understand.

Briggs snarled, then, angry and fierce. “You and my city betrayed me. So, I’m leaving.”

Anduin blinked up at her, horrified, tears gathering in his eyes. Briggs tugged her wrist out of Anduin’s grasp, walked out and didn’t look back. She tugged her hood low over her face and bowed her head to hide the tears that streamed down her own cheeks. When she made it out of the Keep and into the cool night air, Briggs paused. She looked out over Stormwind, _her city_. These people had turned on her without a moment’s notice, simply because Shaw said to. They blindly followed orders against one of their most loyal protectors. Varian would never have allowed this.

Varian wasn’t here, Briggs reminded herself. The loss still cut deep, like a physical pain in her chest. Varian was gone and Anduin was all she had left of him. Briggs scowled and mounted her horse. It was time for her to go home to her children. She rode off into the night, grateful that her dark garb hid her from view.

Never again would she pick up arms to protect these people, not if this was how they repaid her.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!! <3


End file.
